Ebnest sol vat



(No Model.)

EISOLVAY.

APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING GHLORINEL Patented Nov. 27, 1888;

7 UNITED STATES ERNEST SOLVAY, OF

PATENT OF ICE.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.

APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING CHLORINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 393,672, dated November 27, 1888.

Application filed November 2, 1886. Serial No. 217,831. (No model.) Patented in Belgium July 18, 1855, No. 69.641; in Germany July $28,188:),N0. 34,404; in France October 9, 1886, No. 178,953; in England October 20, 1886, No. 13,389, and in Austria-Hungary January 20, 1888, No. 39,814. and No. 64,273.

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST SOLVAY, a Belgian subject, residing at Brussels, Belgium, have invented anew and Improved Continuous Furnace for the Production of Chlorine, (for which I haveobtained patents in Belgium,N0. 69.641, dated July 18, 1885; in France, No. 178,953, dated October 9, 1886; in Germany, No. 34,404, dated July 28, 1885; in Austria, No. 39,814 and No. 64,273, dated January 20, 1888, and in Great Britain, No. 13,389, dated October 20, 1886,) of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to furnaces for the production of chlorine; and it consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the construction and disposition of such furnaces.

Figure l is a vertical sectional view of afurnace constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section throu h the line a; m, Fig. 1.

In a mass of brick work, a, forming the body of the furnace, are mounted a series of hollow vertical columns, I) c d, in which is charged the mixture which is to be decomposed by heated air. The said hollow columns b c d are formed by placing one above the other a number of retorts or portions of retorts made of refractory or fireproof material. Their diameter is very small in proportion to the total height of the columns, the height of the said columns being only limited by the resistance of the materials. A usual height of the columnsis at least twelve meters, or nearly forty feet. The dimensions of the said columns allow of the operation being carried out systematically and of the heat having access to the very heart of the material to be heated.

The furnace constructed as hereinbefore described obviates a most serious defect in furnaces as hitherto constructed, in which the unavoidable expansion and contraction of the materials produced fissures and ruptures or breakages, which at once put the furnace out of use. According to this invention the hollow refractory columns I; c d, hereinbefore described, are made up of separate segments resting freely one on the other, the joints being simply ground or smoothed without any cement being used to connect them together. Thus all the parts are free to expand or contract in any direction within the furnace without any hinderance whatever. Even the upperjointis free to expand or contract, as shown in the drawlugs.

The whole series of refractory columns are heated from one gasproducer or source of heat, 9, the products from which are conducted by suitable lines, 6, to each column, round which they circulate. The temperature is regulated by opening or closing suitable air-holes, f, and the damper of the chimney. All the columns are independent one of the other, and they are supported at the bottom upon hollow metal pedestals 0, which have tubes h, for the admis sion of heated air, and doors m. of the three retort-columns are connected, as shown, so that they can receive air from a common source and admit the same simultaneously into the respective columns.

In carrying out the operation, the furnace being suitably heated, the said columns I) c d are completely filled from the top atl with the matters to be decomposed broken up into fragments of suitable size. A current of air already dried andheated byits passage through the brick work of the furnace is. admitted through the air-holes h at the bottom of each column. The decomposed material is withdrawn continuously at the bottom of the column at m and the air charged with chlorine flows out at the top of the column at k.

I am aware that it has been proposed to make retorts for the distillation of wood of superposed segments or sections of comparatively large diameter, which are united at thejoints by clay luting and are designed to be successively removed during the progress of the distillation. The furnace devised by me, however, is for an entirely different purpose, and is made up of fire-clay sections of small diameter superposed so as to form a high column, which is supported at top and bottom within a furnace-chamber or structure of masonry, so that it can contract and expand.

I am also well aware that a number of furnaces have been proposed for carrying out chemical reactions in clay retorts,and in aspecial furnace for the manufacture of cyanides, devised in England in 184.7,heated atmosphere The tubes h is carried upward through a long tube made of tire bricks or clay and heated externally by a furnace. In none of these furnaces having clay retorts is set forth the superposing of con1- plete sections or tubes which simply rest upon each other and are not joined by luting or otherwise. The function and advantages of such a construction have already been set forth.

I claim as my invention- 1. In an apparatus for the continuous production of chlorine, the combination, with a furnace, of a vertical retort comprising a hollow pedestal'section with air-inlet and discharge-door, a series of refractory shells resting freely one on the other, and the upper one having a feed-hole and gas-escape opening,

substantially as herein set forth.

2. An apparatus for the continuous production of chlorine, comprising a furnace and a vertical retort or column made of superposed segments or shells of refractory material resting freely one upon the other, with the joints ground or smoothed to be free to expand and contract without tongues or overlapping portions to interfere therewith, substantially as described.-

In an apparatus for the continuous production of chlorine, the combination, with a furnace, of a vertical retort formed of a hollow pedestal having an air-tube and discharge door, and a series of superposed hollow sections of refractory material resting freely one on the other, the upper section having a charg ing-hole and gas escape opening, substantially as herein set forth.

ERN EST SOL V A Y.

Witnesses:

R. S. KIRKPATRIUK, W. F. E Krau'm'rmoic. 

